Victor Frankenstein builds a creature and brings it to life. But his creature does not behave as he intended.

Review:

We start this film with Baron Victor Frankenstein (the impeccable Cushing) in prison, telling a priest all about why he is there to be executed. A flashback then starts his story.
As always, Hammer Horror have come up with great settings for the era of the story, as well as a great cast. This isn’t like normal Frankenstein films, but tends to concentrate more on Frankenstein himself instead of the creature. They have centred more on the morals of playing around with life and death, than how the creature acts or feels.

Cushing as Frankenstein is perfection. He is serious, authoritative, and plays the crazy scientist with ease. His piercing blue eyes staring out when he exclaims “It’s alive!” after he brings a dog back to life, actually make you melt into a puddle of blood. Fortunately for us, this isn’t enough for him. HE wants to take it further by creating a creature from scratch, using different body parts.
So with the help of his friend Paul Krempe (Urquhart), he finds different body parts to use.
The last part he wants is the brain…in fact the brain of a genius (I thought my head felt empty!), and soon they are successful in awakening their creature.

Lee plays the creature, and even though he has no dialogue in this film at all, (Just what I love, a man that won’t answer back) his presence dominates the screen whenever he is on. Although his make-up does look like his face was planted right into a bowl of porridge.
Unfortunately, we have no heaving bosoms in this one. I know, I was disappointed too! But the women are extremely beautiful, so you will still have your eye candy.

The creature then escapes and the two men have to go after it. A few simple altercations later and Krempe shoots it, believing it to be dead.

By this point of the film, Krempe has found his morals and decided he won’t help Doctor Frankenstein anymore. He leaves, begging Elizabeth (Court), who is Frankenstein’s cousin and Fiancé, to leave with him. Naturally she won’t, because she is loyal and obviously loves crazy men.

The film could end there, but no, this is Hammer Horror after all! The creature isn’t dead, because Frankenstein has taken him back to the lab and regenerated it.
More altercations ensue, with the creature breaking free again. This ends with Frankenstein killing the creature and it falling into a vat of acid, causing it to dissolve.

The film ends with us back in the prison and the priest not believing the story he has just heard. They call for Krempe to support the story, but as there is no proof due to the fact it dissolved, he claims he has no idea what Frankenstein is talking about.

We are left watching Frankenstein as he is taken to his execution, and we watch Krempe going off with Elizabeth. Oh the horror!.

There isn’t too much blood in this one, apart from the iconic scene that inspired a million horror fans like Mark Gatiss to go into a career in horror. The scene in question, where the creature is shot in the eye, has plenty of glorious bright red, Kensington Gore blood. The name for fake blood of course. But it does deserve a score of 4 for being perfectly Hammer.

Kenny and Holly film fact :

Although they had both previously appeared in Hamlet (1948) and Moulin Rouge (1952), Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing met on the set of this film for the first time. They would pass the time between shots by exchanging loony tunes phrases, and quickly developed a friendship which lasted until Cushing's death in 1994.

So there we have it for this month my deadly readers. Enjoy the film and until next time